· FINAL WORD ·
Thriving
Fight the dead, fear the living.
The tagline sounds cynical. Is The Walking Dead overall a pessimistic story or an optimistic one? Is there hope?
Andrew J. West (Gareth): Absolutely, I think it is hopeful. And honest, too, because you do see so many different sides of humanity, but it’s hopeful because you spend most of your time with good people who are still good in spite of this world in which they live. So I think in that sense, it’s definitely optimistic and hopeful.1
Good people, West says. “Intriguing, believable characters whom people care about,” John Russo calls them in this book’s foreword. Paradoxical as it might seem, the characters’ flaws and mistakes make it easier for us to hope for them and for them to inspire us. If they can keep trying to do the right thing, so can we. So can other people we meet in this life. The fact that they’re fictional gives us greater freedom to connect to them, no strings attached. We want heroes, but in this cynical age when social media and 24/7 news announce living heroes’ every mistake, we need Sheriff Rick Grimes, not Dudley Do-Right, to show us that imperfect people can keep trying to do the right thing.
Heroism is about standing up when it’s hard, even dangerous, and it can cost us a lot. Heroes persist. “Never give up!” we expect them to say, and yet heroism is also about coming back from a fall. Descending into a dark place can bestow new respect for the light. “I wanted to die for what I’d lost,” Tyreese tells Noah, “and later, I was there for Judith when she needed me. And that wouldn’t have happened if I’d just given up, if I hadn’t chosen to live.”2
“The world we knew is gone, but keeping our humanity? That’s a choice,” Dale says,3 and many others echo his concern along the way. What does that really mean, though? Empathy, sympathy, looking out for others? It’s not cold practicality. Rick considers killing Randall at the farm but does not. He considers turning Michonne over to the Governor but does not. Why? Because either act would be inhuman. Existence means more than surviving. Throughout the dark tetrad, that four-part model of evil we’ve used to examine The Walking Dead’s top troublemakers throughout this book, we see selfish motivations behind exploitative actions. The hero can be tempted and sometimes may fall, but he or she keeps coming back. Others see heroism in Rick Grimes where he does not. Even when Rick thinks he can betray Michonne, everyone else has faith that he will not.
“I believe in Rick Grimes,”4 Maggie declares during a later conflict against a more rational villain, and she’s not alone. We—the readers, viewers, game players, and cosplayers—believe in them. Individually, some will fail, we know, but we have faith in the greater group. Like our hope for humanity, we want people to endeavor to do more right than wrong.
After these characters lose the farm and the prison, after they face Claimers and cannibals and hospital cops, after they suffer loss upon loss but before they finally reach a safe zone, a community where they can live, a different tagline appears, one with an inherent promise that no matter how much there is to dread, life can become better and bigger:
Beyond fear, find hope.5
Behind even a dreary setting, the sun will still rise (Grantville, Georgia).
We would not fear for these characters so strongly if we did not hope for them as well. They keep going without knowing for certain what will happen—and so do we. When situations seem darkest, we can looks for signs that things will brighten. In the darkness, every light stands out. We hope for hope, and that keeps us going until we find it. We can do more than survive. We can thrive.
Notes
1. Personal communication (January 10, 2015).
2. Episode 5–9, “What Happened and What’s Going On” (February 8, 2015).
3. Episode 2–11, “Judge, Jury, Executioner” (March 3, 2012).
4. Issue 118 (2013).
5. Season 5B trailer (November 30, 2014).